I earned my B.Sc. in Biology and M.Sc. in Entomology from McGill University, and my Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University, where I studied the effects of drought on soil organisms at regional and local scales in the western US and Antarctica. As a visiting postdoctoral fellow with the Canadian Forest Service, I studied interactions between an outbreaking insect (spruce budworm) and soil communities, and the role shrub willow planting can play in establishing soil communities during restoration of a surface coal mine. I then led a project studying how successful oilfield reclamation efforts have been in restoring rangeland plant, insect and soil communities and investigating potential pitfalls in current reclamation methods as a postdoctoral scientist with the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. My current research interests focus on understanding the effects of environmental changes (especially drought, urbanization, and species invasions) and restoration activities on insects, soil invertebrates and interactions between aboveground and belowground organisms.
